Takes Advantage of Mutually Beneficial Opportunities
2. Intractable Conflict Threat and Opportunity
When conflict is handled destructively, particularly in hyper-polarized conflicts, the assumption is made that all disputes are win-lose situations, meaning the only way one side can "win" is if the other side "loses." This often leads to an all out battle in which both sides lose — they don't get what they want, and they get harmed significantly by the struggle. If, on the other hand, the parties realize that there might be some opportunities for them to negotiate a mutually-beneficial agreement, they can reframe their conflict from win-lose (or even lose-lose) to win-win.
This is possible far more often than is realized. While abortion looks to be an absolutely win-lose conflict in the United States, in reality, neither side likes abortions, so both sides would like to see them minimized. Agreeing on sex education, easier availability of contraception, and other measures to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies is a possible win-win approach. (Yes, some religions disapprove of sex education and/or contraception, and for those people, this solution would not work.) But for others it has, and the prevalence of abortions was going down, at least before Roe v. Wade was overturned.
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